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In the temple Jesus found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and money changers sitting at tables. Jesus made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple—sheep, oxen, money changers. He poured out their money and overturned their tables.
He spoke to those selling doves, “Take these doves out of here. Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

John 2.14-16

In Sunday’s gospel Jesus acts dramatically to cleanse the temple of those who change money for paying temple tax and those who sell animals for sacrifice, necessary functions for Israel’s religious practice at the time. “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace,” he commands, pours out their money and overturns the tables. Such a disruptive act might claim headlines today.
Where do buying and selling get in the way of appreciating God’s presence in your life?

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